Archive for February, 2012

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) has issued strong warnings to European nations that the hurried thawing of the Danube River has the potential of bringing more death and disaster to those regions so heavily hit by this horrible winter. Already important cargo ships are sinking, and villages in countries like Bulgaria are severely flooded by thawing flood waters.

But winter is not thawing in remote areas of Afghanistan where 35 children in refugee camps died from winter pneumonia just in the last two days. That brings the number of Afghan children killed by winter’s storms to 75 in one month.

Demanding that individual nations put forth better planning and emergency services, UNISDR insists that the European Flood Alert System faces the greatest threat in its 10-year history. Margareta Wahlstrom, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction says: “This severe winter in which hundreds of people have died has highlighted several weaknesses in our built environment and our ability to prepare for worst-case scenarios.

“Vulnerable communities across Europe have been cut off from transport, schools, health facilities and electricity in many cases.” She points out that thousands are still snowbound from Serbia to Bulgaria.

Moreover, Ms. Wahlstrom foresees even greater loss of life and property in nations where there is no flood management infrastructure, such as dams and dikes. There must be “more focus on winterization planning” she said.

Spiegel Online reports that “dislodged slabs of melting ice . . . crash into and sink boats and barges anchored on the river, causing hundreds of thousands of euros in damage.” In Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, ice floes have sunk the “city’s most popular restaurant, a popular tourist attraction.”

The Associated Press explains: “Officials are now trying to determine if the thaw will cause more heavy flooding, bringing more misery to a region where more than 600 have already died because of the extreme cold.”

AP also lauds U.S. military helicopters for evacuating people from parts of Montenegro cut off from the mainland. And in Germany, with the Danube still frozen, shipping remains at a standstill. Environmental News Service (ENS) reports that the Bulgarian government started disinfecting of drinking water sources, and that countries have ruled out using TNT to break up huge ice floes.

Afghanistan is a Third World country, and if war had not forced them into refugee camps, those children may still be alive. But what is Europe’s excuse for being so unprepared for winter. Surely they remember The LORD Jesus’ warning in wholesale Christian Bibles, “pray ye that your flight be not in winter (Mark 13: 18).” Surely more modern Europe should be prepared for this time of death in 2012, but perhaps no people or nations are truly ready for these times we live in!

Water systems around the world are dying. Whether it is aquifers collapsing from urban population drains, or industries and agriculture using more water than nature can replenish, or tap water laden with fracking chemicals catching fire, or water so polluted that boiling cannot cure it––Earth is loosing its fresh clean water!

But of all nations on earth, the worse is China. As it races to pass the U. S. as the world’s top economy, China is killing millions of its people with bad water.

Water in China is so polluted that people constantly boil it––even bottled water––before drinking. But bad water makes millions ill anyway. Moreover, in all parts of the country, there simply aren’t adequate water supplies for either personal or industrial use. And what water is available is contaminated with chemical agricultural run-offs, and large scale industrial throw-away garbage.

Just this month, Tom writes in seeingredinchina.com that “190 million people in China drink water with ‘high levels of hazardous substances’ and a total of 300 million drink ‘unclean water,’ . . .”

In an interview with BBC’s, “The World” Dr. Peter Gleick, President of the Pacific Institute, says: “China’s water quality is horrible, really bad. They have massive industrial contamination; they have massive contamination of human wastes because their waste water systems are not up to any sort of decent standards.” Gleick adds that this bad quality may be beyond the point of repair!

Usually complicit, even the Chinese government is arresting company executives for water pollution practices. AFP News reveals this week that one company “has been blamed for dumping cadmium, a carcinogen which can seriously damage the kidneys, bones and respiratory system, into the river in a spill” last month. And another company is charged with dumping paint pigment.

AFP: “Authorities have mobilized thousands of soldiers to dump chemical neutralizers into waters to dilute cadmium, but levels of the metal were still over 25 times higher than the official limit.” But are “neutralizers” safe to drink?

Chinese citizens are actually holding protest actions against their Communist government over poor water. China’s many dams also affect the water supply. So India is crying foul too, saying the dams are stopping their water flows. And according to world-wire@ens-news.net, indigenous people in Malaysia are also protesting because China is building many dams there to steal their water as well.

Mankind is ruining the Earth to such an extend that God will have no choice but to bring the judgment that Bible prophecies promise: “Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. (Revelation 14: 7).” Those fountains of waters are His gift for man’s life. And for the sake of money and power, mankind is turning them into fountains of death.

There is a silent epidemic moving across the world. It is hunger, and its victims are usually children. How is it possible that in this age of “superior” technology, industrial agriculture cannot feed all the people on earth?

According to Paul Vallely, “Special Report: The Hungry Generation,” in independent.co.uk, 300 children die of malnutrition every hour, and “a quarter of young children around the world are not getting enough nutrients to grow properly.” Half of the children with stunted growth live in either Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Peru or Nigeria––all of which have suffered rising food prices.

Vallely points to Global Warming as a major cause of these rapidly increased prices, in addition to other man-made maladies: “Over the past five years the price of food has soared across the globe, thanks to extreme weather conditions, diverting farmland to grow biofuels, speculative trading of food commodities and the global financial crisis.”

AFP News adds that “Crops have failed across a massive swathe of eight countries after late and erratic rains in 2011, and aid agencies have raised the alarm of a food crisis bigger than that which left millions hungry in 2010.” AFP adds that late and erratic rains in 2011 warn of a “deadly hungry season” in 2012.

The lack of food especially affects the poor, because they spend most of their income for food purchases. But for many there is no income. Both Oxfam and Save the Children argue that thousands in East Africa are needlessly dying because “the international community failed to respond to early warnings of famine.”

And the World Food Programme insists that in West Africa 700,000 people are going hungry, and that an “urgent action to help the poorest households and avoid a major humanitarian crisis.” A year ago, on the Sahel belt, along the Sahara desert, stretching from Senegal to Eritrea, 10 million people suffered severe famine caused by drought. Oxfam says that the drought caused harvests to drop 25% last year “leaving more than one million children threatened with severe malnutrition.”

Our sister blog, worldcollide-culture-christianity-endoftime.com, argues that famine is one of many signs that we are in the last days. Famine, drought, and extremely high food prices all indicate that earth cannot go on as it has been.

Bible prophecies in Revelation 6: 5, 8 posit that world-wide hunger is a sure mark of end-time events: “And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and [see] thou hurt not the oil and the wine. . . . And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.” It is time for mankind to repent: plan against Global Warming; feed the poor; and ask God for forgiveness.

HURRY! HURRY! HURRY! Get the latest news from us, the Newspaper Boys and Girls Association, Int’l (NBGI) about the people vs. animal “games.” People––adult people we mean––are still ahead: Score 2012 to 3. Sure, maybe animals get in a few licks, but believe us, people kill far more animals than that.

So, this one is for the birds, beautiful, precious, earth-necessary animals being driven to extinction by: man-made Global Warming, man-induced alien species, and man-caused loss of habitat, etc. Need we say more????

Look, us kids are growing up with Earthend-Newbeginning.com. So we know that editors of this blog have been writing about bird decline for years. Yet you adults in charge of everything have done nothing to change this situation.

How can we stress this enough? Bird life is declining around the world. Even in the United States, birds are threatened with extinction! In 2009, Mat McDermott wrote in Discovery.com that a third of the birds native to the United States are in severe decline. And that number has only skyrocketed since then!

For instance, Hawaii, our 50th state, has some of the most beautiful birds in the world. But a recent study by Cornell University and the U.S. Interior Department, says “Nearly All Native Birds in Hawaii Are In Peril.”

Dr. John Fitzpatrick, Director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, says that Hawaii “is the epicenter of extinctions and near-extinctions. Hawaii is a borderline ecological disaster.” Kids want to know, how did this happen? Who is to blame?

The U.S. Geological Survey, which published the report, says: “Hawaii’s native birds are threatened by the destruction of their habitats by invasive plant species and feral animals like pigs, goats and sheep. Diseases, especially those borne by mosquitoes, are another killer.”

Mosquitoes? Are you kidding? Yep, like we we kids have been saying for months, when it comes to animals you adults are nuts!! You are going to let wild pigs, which are even not native to Hawaii, and sprayable-away mosquitoes deface one of the most beautiful spots on earth? Hey with no birds, ain’t no Hawaii!

The PLoS ONE Journal published another report this year saying: “Native birds at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge [in Hawaii] are in unprecedented trouble.” Two professors at the University of Hawaii say that the birds are molting much longer than normal because they are starving to death. Need we say more?

That’s it! We’s turning you folks over to God! In her Christian messages, Rev. Repriestly quotes God’s Word that He will “destroy them which destroy the earth (Revelation 11: 18).” So ya’ll better start caring more ‘bout birds now cause they’re God beautiful creatures! Or else! Like we said, This One Is For The Birds!

Dr. Adversery Bored: While we keep our eye on the freezing winter of death and mayhem in Europe and Asia, our research teams sent in other issues that must be reported as well. And one of these is as close to the United States as Mexico.

Major media in the U.S. has near to nothing on this story, but newspaper Boys and Girls, Int., learned from their counterparts as far away as India, that Mexico is fighting an epidemic of swine flu. Just this year, between January 1st and February 9th, more than 3,522 cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Mexico, and at least 81 people have died from the infecting virus.

Times of India says that “Three seasonal viruses are currently active in Mexico — AH1N1, AH3N2 and influenza B. The AH1N1 — or swine flu — has been the predominant one, with 91 per cent of the infections.” The AH1N1 virus was first detected south of our border in March of 2009. By June of 2010, more than 1300 had died, and over 70,000 people were infected by this outbreak.

Maleekie Ambularie: Another epidemic of Lassa Fever is sweeping through Nigeria and other parts of West Africa. The disease is spread by the mastomys rat which lives in and around many homes in Africa. Lassa Fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. Kehinde Oyetimi of Nigeria’s Sunday Tribune reveals that the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 5,000 people a year are killed by this disease. Ms. Oyetimi says: “Researchers have raised alarm of the possible use of the virus as a biological weapon” to thin out Africa’s population.

Dr. Adversery Bored: Also in South America, doctors report an epidemic of a new mystery disease that is killing thousands. Men who have labored for decades in agricultural areas have kidney failure for no apparent reason. One victim says: “[It] comes with no warning, and when they find it, it’s too late.”

MSNBC News reports that this mysterious epidemic is devastating the Pacific coast of Central America, killing more than 24,000 people with chronic kidney disease in El Salvador and Nicaragua in the last decade. The kidney failure could be from years of farm work, or from dehydration.

Maleekie Ambularie: Also, universities working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that antibiotic resistance is making gonorrhea untreatable. As Maryn McKenna reports in wired.com, “gonorrhea acquires resistance mutation much more easily than syphilis does.” The U.S. has 70,000 cases a year of this highly resistant STD, and science is stumped for answers.

Christian messages say these disease are caused by sin and Satan. When Jesus died for us on the Cross, He not only absorbed the punishments for sin, He died for our healing as well: “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed (1 Peter 2: 24).” So believe in Him to be saved and healed!

Several new reports coming in from Japan make one wonder if the entire nation is on some type of suicide mission. The government there seems incapable of steering its population in the right direction, or to prepare for the next nuclear disaster, or to comprehend that another earthquake may indeed be coming soon.

This can be concluded from several factors:

1) The Fukushima reactor is leaking and overheating again; 2) The nation’s economy is very weak; 3) The government is wasting billions to pay unskilled workers to “scrub” away radiation; 4) Instead of allowing communities to be rebuilt for the greatest safety, elder generations insist that their ancestral villages to be completely restored so they have familiar surroundings in which to die;

5) For this reason, a much smaller population of younger generations are resisting traditional respect for elders’ wishes; 6) A United Nations nuclear watchdog committee says that the country and its utility companies do not have sufficient plans in place in the event of another disaster; 7) No one there seems to comprehend that two quakes 6.4 and 6.0 in strength have already hit close to Japan, and scientists claim these are signs that another massive quake is on the way.

Tokyo Electric admits this week that the reactor is overheating at 82 degrees Celsius, which is higher then the newly established safety level of 80 degrees. Yet, the govenment says it is ok as the temperature remains below 100, and the utility company says that “maybe the therometer is broken.”

In his New York Times (NYC) article, Normitisu Onishi asks: “In a country where power rests disproportionately among older people, how does Japan, which has the world’s most rapidly aging population, use its dwindling resources to build a society that looks to the future as much as to the past?” When one mayor tried to steer rebuilding in a safer direction, the older generation voted him out.

In another NYC article, “A Confused Nuclear Cleanup,” Hiroko Talbuchi quotes a day laborer as he wipes down windows of an abandoned school: “We are all amateurs. Nobody really knows how to clean up radiation.” Their job is to “clean-up” an 8,000 square mile area so that 80,000 residents can return “home.”
One critic says it is all a scam as decontamination has become a big business.

In addition, economists note that the earthquake and tsunami, Thailand’s floods, and slowing global trade cause Japan’s economy to severely contract. Thus, the central bank must do what is necessary to bolster its currency.

Japan’s bankers and governments seem stymied with no where to turn. As they wait for the next earthquake, depression is setting in. Bible prophecies promise that those with the ministry of intercession can pray, asking God, in The Name of Jesus, to turn the situation around for Japan (Romans 8: 26 – 27).

Jael: We cannot stress this enough: people must understand that weather in Europe and elsewhere is not normal! The death toll from freezing weather in Europe is over 600, and children in Afghanistan are dying from this winter’s cold!

Wendy Weathersbee: That’s right Jael. Look, even in Russia, where people are certainly use to the cold, temperatures have been as low as minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit. At last count, what AFP News calls “abnormally cold winter weather” has killed 215 people there. Another 5,546 suffer from hypothermia and frostbite.

In Carligul Mic, Romania, firemen and volunteers dig tunnels through snow just to reach the roofs of some houses. Authorities claim that “an estimated 30,000 people were still cut off in Romania, and more than 110,000 in the Balkans as well, including 60,000 in Montenegro, nearly 10 percent of the population.”

Jael: To prove that this weather is not normal: A 78 year old Romanian resident told AFP News, “I’ve never seen as much snow in my whole life.” And with villages that snow has made unapproachable, the mayor of Campana, Italy, summarizes: this weather is like “an earthquake without the shaking.” Moreover, a report from Budapest quotes an official adding: “And for the first time time since World War II, Azerbaijan set up shelters for homeless people in the capital Baku.”

Dr. Adversery Bored: Now that is something Jael. Please let me add that–– although the Afghan government tried for weeks to downplay the situation there––it has now come out that dozens of children are dying from cold and hunger because this outrageously heavy winter weather is in Afghanistan too.

New York Times reporter Rod Nordland reports this week that some six thousands refugees in the Charahi Qambar camp are living under freezing conditions without heat or food. Apparently, these victims are escapees from battles between U.S. warriors and Al Quida, so the military, State Department and the aid community have moved quickly to get families blankets and food.

But, Nordland says, these efforts are “chaotic and disorganized, with some camps receiving little aid and others being deluged with duplicated aid.” The additional shock of it is that most of these camps are in the Afghan capital, Kabul. When a member of that nation’s Parliament visited a camp where 10 children froze to death, “he was shocked by the conditions of the tent-and-mud-hut camps, most of them within Kabul and many next to comparatively well-off neighborhoods.” He said, “It is not a life for a human, it is a life for animals.”

Jael: So, why is most of major media in the U. S.saying so little about the devastating weather overseas? What are they “protecting” Americans from? Do commercial interests have the power to suppress bad news because it interrupts commerce? If so, too many Americans are enslaved by materialism which is why wholesale Christian Bibles promise: “The truth shall set you free! (John 8: 32).”

Jael: Again the team will share reports of what we have garnered out of Europe. The entire news world knows these reports are incomplete as many areas are cut off from communication, as well as from heat and medical treatment.

Dr. Adversery Bored: The death toll has climbed to 550, and dozens more are expected as hundreds of villages, especially in Eastern Europe, are completely cut off, some in flooded conditions, and some 500 other towns cut off with no electricity or other heat, behind closed roads, and in need of medical attention. Even where hospitals can function, supplies are either very low or exhausted.

Victims were found frozen to death in or near their homes, others accidently slid into freezing waters, or were overtaken by floods from broken dams. Some fell under attacks of falling ice. Working in cold temperatures, often dark, as utilities demand hours of down time to conserve energy, doctors in thousands of shelters and hospitals try to heal patients and keep them warm and alive.

Newsworthy: The 1,780 mile long Danube River has been frozen for two weeks now, greatly affecting the economies of 10 countries which, according to Yahoo News, depend on the River for commerce in: “transport, power, irrigation, industry and fishing.” The River is blocked from Austria to the Black Sea.
Hundreds of vessels are either stuck in port or trapped on frozen waters.

Not only is there little or no airplane or helicopter flights, in most of these affected countries, even rail transportation has been halted either by snow-blocked or flooded out rails. And auto transportation is restricted for emergency use.

Moreover, officials in all of these countries expect severe flooding and other damage once the freezing starts to thaw: “An official from the Serbian economy ministry said the commercial repercussions ‘could be very bad;’” while another official said shipping would not resume for at least another 10 days.

Weathersbee: Even in Britain, it will be -13 C. In some places, temperatures have dropped as low as -40 degrees, a place where Fahrenheit and Celsius are equal. Some villages are completely flooded out because of rains, avalanches and broken dams.

Also Lee Moran of dailymail.co.uk says, “Residents were also warned that there was more snow to come––which would be followed by severe floods when the temperature finally starts to rise and the snow melts.”

Jael: We know most Americans would prefer not to read about these tragedies. But if people are ever to understand Global Warming, they must know about its affects. They must also comprehend that such conditions can easily turn to this country. The Book of Revelation prophesies that billions will be destroyed by natural and spiritual collapses (chapters 6, 9, 13, 16 etc.). Thus, readers should see the continent today as a predictor of things to come.

Jael Ever: There is so much going on in Europe, Asia and Africa this winter that I organized our teams of specialists to give broader reports on conditions.

Newsworthy and Weathersbee: Things have gotten more desperate in the region with some areas hitting temperatures of 30 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. At latest count more than 400 are dead from this cold snap that has lasted for almost two weeks. Bodies are now found on streets, in cars and in homes.

That figure will undoubtedly rise when rescuers can get to the “tens of thousands” in villages blocked off by the snow. One mayor called in: “People are in panic. Ninety percent of the village is under water.”

Official weather services claim the weather will last through to March. News releases from National Post.com reveal that officials across Europe are using explosives, ice breakers, tractors and anything else to melt river ice sheets.

Dr. Ad Versery Bored: Another complication is a new disease that has sprang up in these below zero areas. International health services now call this norovirus “the winter vomiting bug.” The disease spreads in hospitals and has symptoms of violent vomiting, other bodily sickness and diarrhea. Daily Mail.com advises that over 1,500 cases are now reported in various European countries.

Hospital officials warn that this disease can be deadly. Thus, they advise that everyone must wash their hands thoroughly and regularly, especially after using the toilet and before eating; disinfect surfaces and not share towels.

Moreover, doctors have warned officials that populations must have more heat available in hospitals and in homes. But that presents a problem. Russian utility company, Gazprom, says that it cannot meet these winter spike demands.

Gazprom explains that just this month alone demand for gas in Europe has increased 50 percent, and that it cannot fill that order for Western Europe as Russia needs that heat resource for its own people. Officials in affected countries claim that they have enough gas in store for the winter, but that is doubtful as the EU imports four-fifths of its gas and a third of that comes from Russia.

Maleekie Ambularie: Two cyclones and the resulting floods rolling through southern Mozambique have killed scores of people. And in Malawi, cyclones causing Category 4 storms, continuous heavy rains, and flood waters have chased some 5,000 people out of their homes. Helicopters attempt to rescue thousands of people marooned on dry patches in small villages with no road access.

Jael Ever: With these reports, I ask John and Jude and Dr. Repriestly to further activate their prayer groups. I also ask the Newspaper Boys and Girls, Int., to scour their crews everywhere for more reports on winter conditions. We must study Bible verse cards Matthew 16: 2 – 3 where The LORD Jesus says people may see the weather, but they don’t understand the times. Truly, we are in such times.

Sarah and Wendy are still working on erratic weather in Europe and Asia. They say news releases now only emphasize that the United Kingdom still suffers under this cold from a Siberian front. So they allowed me to interrupt their weather updates with information on recent events in the world of nuclear power.

Europe’s weather and U. S. politics, along with cooperating national media, have taken the nuclear accident in Illinois, 95 miles northwest of Chicago, at the end of last month out of the headlines. The public was only told: “Officials are investigating the events surrounding a power failure at a nuclear reactor . . . .”

Operators at the Exelon Nuclear Generating Station began “releasing steam to cool the reactor from the part of the plant where turbines produce electricity.” Officials quickly said that the steam, which supposedly contains “low levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen” did not come from the reactor itself, and was therefore safe for workers and the public.

The Associated Press says that “federal and plant officials insisted the levels were safe for workers and the public.” Now Exelon claims that “a failed piece of equipment” at a switchyard “may” be the cause. A switchyard is a large substation exchanging power between the plant and the electrical grid.

Viktoria Mitlyng from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says: “One question is why smoke was seen from an onsite station transformer, though no evidence of a fire was found when the plant’s fire brigade responded.” Good question! We continue to investigate at Earth End. So more soon.

Meanwhile overseas: Because of radiation dangers, Japan has halted the clean up from the Fukushima-earthquake destruction. However, crews are still searching ocean waters for bodies, at the insistence of relatives who want to give their loved ones decent burials. To make matters worse, AFP Press reveals that the five task forces empowered to evacuations of tens of thousands of Japanese citizens kept no detailed records of their responses. These task forces were headed by the past Prime Minister and all of his ministers, who also kept no records.

But, regardless of Japan’s failures, governments in Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and 30 other Asian companies still want nuclear power. According to Gulf Times, Vietnam plans to start construction of their first reactor in 2014 and to build another 14 by 2030. But in most of these countries––as in most of Europe––the public is strongly resisting nuclear power.

If only the American people would also resist this dangerous form of energy. Bible prophecies make clear that a mark of true Christianity is wisdom: “And The Spirit of The LORD shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of Knowledge and of The Fear of The LORD;. . . (Isaiah 11: 2). Human life should not be gambled with. That is wisdom!